What's going on in my shop currently...

[George Hill]

The goal is to get to the track more often and not "work" so much. I've been instructing with some of the HPDE orginzations lately and we just had an event at Motorsports Ranch in Cresson, TX. So it was the first outing in Eileen since the changes.

To say I was thrilled was an understatement but the car has worked better than it ever has. So much grip with these RE71RS vs the RS4s and I'm not even at the limit yet. The RM brake pads really have allowed much more control over the car throughout the braking zone its really impressive.

Saturday I could tell the car was better but really hadn't made huge improvements over previous times. I had a conversation with a racer friend a while back and we were just talking hypotheticals and he said if you wanna go fast you can't drive like a bitch. So Sunday I was thinking there was still time on the table and I decided to take his advice and immediately knocked 1.5 seconds off and ultimate landed nearly 2.5 seconds faster than Sat and didn't even get a clean lap. Theoretical times were still another 1.8 seconds faster so I can't wait to go back and really explore the limits of the car.

My "fast" laps:

https://youtu.be/ycCnbn-8dYk

My buddy Jason joined and thats his black touring, its basically a SPECE46 legal setup with AC and no cage.

[George Hill]

Cool...so no need to press the hubs out?

Correct, knock the CVs out and replace with the 330 shafts.

I can always find a reason to go to Austin. Are you going to Cresson 3.1 in 2 weeks?

Presently I am signed up to instruct, so I plan to be there.

[bigjae46]

Love it, I'm sure we can meet up at a TDE event.



No they are different lengths. But you won't have any issue with non-M shafts. I drag raced this setup with 325 shafts/Trailing arms AND tracked it for years. Our cars don't make enough power to worry me and your car is way light so 330 shafts shouldn't be an issue. You have a ZF5 correct? You can use a stock driveshaft at that point too.

So you'll change the diff, subframe, CV shafts and driveshafts, thats it. 4.44 ratio came in an X3, but they also had 3.91 and 3.73s as an option too.

Cool...so no need to press the hubs out?

I can always find a reason to go to Austin. Are you going to Cresson 3.1 in 2 weeks?

[George Hill]

Nice! Thanks for the shoutout! I'll try to knockout a non-reject CF front plate for you over the winter. I want try something so won't be a big deal other than getting it to you.

Love it, I'm sure we can meet up at a TDE event.

I was thinking about going to a non-M rear subframe/diff on my car to shed some weight. Do you know if I can use the M3 axles with a non-M diff?

No they are different lengths. But you won't have any issue with non-M shafts. I drag raced this setup with 325 shafts/Trailing arms AND tracked it for years. Our cars don't make enough power to worry me and your car is way light so 330 shafts shouldn't be an issue. You have a ZF5 correct? You can use a stock driveshaft at that point too.

So you'll change the diff, subframe, CV shafts and driveshafts, thats it. 4.44 ratio came in an X3, but they also had 3.91 and 3.73s as an option too.

[bigjae46]

Nice! Thanks for the shoutout! I'll try to knockout a non-reject CF front plate for you over the winter. I want try something so won't be a big deal other than getting it to you.

I was thinking about going to a non-M rear subframe/diff on my car to shed some weight. Do you know if I can use the M3 axles with a non-M diff?

[George Hill]

Its been awhile since I've updated the thread here, I'm more active on IG as far as whats going on in the shop but I just did a bunch of work to our shop wagon and made me think about bumping this thread.

For those that don't know Eileen is a 2002 325iT that was originally a 2.5L/Automatic. Shes had a bunch of different combinations but presently the setup is S54, ZF8 automatic and an X3 4.44 ratio diff with wavetrac LSD. The rear suspension is a mix of Non-M subframe and CV shafts with M3 trailing arms and brakes. The interior is gutted, but still has AC and a Carbon Fiber roof which gets the weight down to about 3050# wet w/o driver. Wheel/Tire combo is 275s on 18x9.5s and I fit those with the use of HARD MS fender flares. Now onto the updates....

Finally knocked out some work on Eileen. Some of these parts I've had for literal years so it was nice to get this checked off the list.

Here's the initial parts pile:

• M3 control arms
• M3 spindles
• M3 TMS Monoball "FCABs"
• M3 Brake calipers and rotors
• M3 tie rods
• "ZHP" yellow tag rack
• (2) P/S hoses
• M3 GAZ coilovers - these ended up being junk and I kept the Konis on while I decide whats next, likely FatCat Motorsports custom valve setup.
• "New" subframe - When I installed the S54 I swapped subframes for ease and I used an M52tu one. Those are the same except they don't have all the threaded inserts for the reinforcement plate. I had RivNuts in them but it was only a matter of time til I was ham fisted and killed one.
• Carbon Fiber reinforcement plate - bigjae46 made this for me who knows if its better than stock, but its pretty fun!
• 330 Core4 MS press in stud front hubs
• SPL rear LCA
• VAC MS rear UCA spherical ends - I had these from some leftover customer project I parted out.
• RaceMagic "Race" brake pads

How it started...




Going together






How its going...




Onto the rear






I bought a kit to start doing string alignments for the hot rods. I then happened to be at DrVanos.com picking up some parts and we got to chatting about string alignments and he had a kit he wanted to sell. Gave me a smoking deal I couldn't pass up on this CSM hub stand kit and these tables to set the car on. So I broke these out and setup the car. Got some things to work out with the kit but its awesome so far.






My shop is not large, I used to have a tire machine and balancer but they just took up to much space so I sold them. But my buddy and I were about to buy a ton of tires and we decided it made sense to buy machines and then keep them at his shop. I'm not sure if this is a service I will offer to clients but its soooo nice being able to do my own tires again.




Loading up the pallet of tires along with a shell yall will see more about soon...

IMG_7105 by George, on Flickr


Last step for Eileen before the track was a tires. I had been running Hankook RS4s forever and they have been great. But after being completely blown away by a "less prepared" M3 in the Carousel of CoTA I said I wasn't going back to the track with those tires. I got a set of 275/35/18 Bridgestone RE71RSs and so far I love them.


I got everything on the car and set it on the ground and....








I forgot the M3 suspension was going to widen the track width. I thought I would have enough room, but with the HARD MS flares they can be manipulated to increase or decrease the flare and mine were not installed optimally to clear this setup. So at this point it was the night before the trip to the track in Oklahoma and I decided to call it and throw in the towel. There were so many unknowns this was the final straw and the last thing I wanted was to drag the car 500 miles and then find out there were other issues.


So she sat a coupple weeks and then I got back to work. I had a set of overfenders that I had planned to put on so I could fit 295s but that plan got moved up. I also felt the HARD MS flares were getting a little tired looking and the fitment really wasn't that great overall. So off they came...




Marking out the clearance for the vents.




Chop Chop




Test fit, they are going to work.




And testing a 17mm spacer to see if the 295s will work, gonna be close, IDK.




All assembled. I'm not a huge fan of these over fenders but they are cheap, well made and fit pretty dang good. So the plan is to get the car sorted to meet some made up goals and then I will start backing it back into a more "streetable" and stock like car (kind of).

[heinzboehmer]

The rear shock comes out for that repair and was found to be missing the paper gasket between the mount and the body. This will cause an audible noise and even when these cars were new people would complain about it, BMWs fix was to just add a second gaskets so for her we added (2) new gaskets per side.

I'm chasing a noise in the rear of my car and am thinking it might be related to the shock mounts (sounds like it's in the trunk).

Have you been able to reproduce this sound you're talking about when the car is up in the air? If so, how?

I've unbolted a lot of stuff and wiggled it around, but can only hear the noise when driving. Would be awesome if the fix was just to add another paper gasket to the mount

[George Hill]

We are still back in May for these updates...

Scrapped a shell that we bought for the SPECE46 engine replacement (last year).





A set of rod bearings for an S65.








My buddy Todd owns a shop in Houston (TMJ Bimmers) came in to town to pick up some bell housings I machined for him to convert M3 SMG to full manual.






AND he is a big E36 guy, he heard I had the cleanest driver 328i and wanted to sell it so unexpectedly he drove home with it as well, lol. You'd never believe this car has almost 300k on it, it is quite possibly the nicest over 100k mile (let along almost 300k) car you'd ever see. Which was made it hard to justify owning. Luckily it went to a good home and he is enjoying it immensely.






We are now to June and had a track weekend with BMW CCA at CoTA. Are buddy Daniel convinced us all to go in on a garage together and it was really the best thing ever. It was WELL over 100* all weekend but the way the garages are laid out it really was quite "pleasant" in the garage.

We brough Daniels S54 E36, which I need to do a big write up on, Jason's 330 swapped Touring, Brandons "SPEC E46 Lite" coupe and of course Eileen.

Eileen ended up going 2:37.xx which I am super happy with, lots of room on the table, but it's a good baseline to improve upon in the future.

[George Hill]

Brandon is a friend of the shop and after coming to a an HPDE with us (in his WRX) decided he wanted to step into an E46. As a shop I am always looking for cheap E46 330s and especially if they are manual. As luck would have it I stumbled onto a 330/5MT coupe that fit the bill. We got the car acquired and went about addressing all the deferred maintenance and some minor upgrades to get it ready for track events.




All the fluids were changed as well as a bunch of minor engine maintenance items.




Some of the worst engine mounts I've seen, the support bar was tight before we started.






He really wanted that "Racecar" feel and one of his must haves was a chassis mounted shifter. We got him a Coolerworx as I had heard good things about them being a nice entry level shifter. This was going to knock out two birds with one stone as his transmission detent pins were sticking and we hoped this would allow us not to have to pull the trans out. Well, after fighting the shifter adjustment and still not being happy with it I pulled the shifter out and put my CAE in it. Unfortunately this still didn't get it just right either, so out came the transmission. With the trans out I replaced all the detent pins and then discovered someone had replaced the clutch before and used the garbage pilot bearing that comes in the kits. This is not to knock any particular clutch kit, but everyone I've seen (stock replacement) use non BMW bearings and they just don't fit right, we ALWAYS use a BMW bearing. What happened here is the bearing doesn't fit tightly into the crankshaft and gets loose then starts spinning and sticks to the input shaft, it then overheats, disintegrates and puts trash through the bell housing.




Luckily this one didn't take to much work to get off and a new bearing got it sorted. With the transmission pins replaced and back in the car I put the Coolerworx back in it and now it shifts great!




All back together and he really needed some shocks and struts but wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on a set of MCS so I let him borrow a set of Konis we had sitting on the shelf.






Last step was a set of 17x9" APEX Arc-8 wheels and 255 RS4 tires.




Next up, Landon brought in his 5MT touring for a couple small items that turned into a bit more work when we started adding up the "might as wells."






We started with replacing the oil pan gasket and engine mounts.




Moving back the entire shifter assembly was replaced/refreshed along with a new guibo getting installed.






With the driveshaft out we found one of the u-joints was starting to bind. Our driveshaft shop used to rebuild shafts, but has changed to just making new ones, I assume the economics are better that way and with a simple phone call and vin# we had a new driveshaft in hand in a matter of days (sometimes even next day!).




Lastly, the diff came out and all (3) mounting bushings we replaced, but apparently I didn't take any pics of it.

The car turned out great and appreciate Landon giving us the opportunity to work on his wagon.

[George Hill]

Part 2 of the E63 work, along with the 6MT conversion the car also got a new set of rod bearings from BE.








Along with the bearings we also installed the new stlye piston oil squirters, engine mounts and internal vanos oil supply hose.




We got a call from the Tejas chapter of the BMW CCA (our home chapter), Josh wanted to do a small feature on the shop. We set up a small "30" minute meetup and after what seemed like 1.5-2hrs he was confident he had the info needed. A few months later and we were thrilled with what came about and very humbled to even be considered.






Next we have a very cool ZHP sedan slicktop that came in for a S54 conversion.




We went all in on this one, literally every single moving part of the suspension was replaced, shocks, struts, bushings, ball joints, etc.

















The engine got all the usual stuff, but I guess I didn't document it very well. The engine is stock, but we did add euro headers and cats then a Super Sprint S54 to E46 conversion section 2 & 3.














Wiring is always the interesting part, lol. The correct color wires and now in the right place.






SMG harness thinned and "converted" to euro spec.




Instrument cluster in process to getting "converted."




And assembled.










Lastly, we sourced a tanin read interior and it was swapped in then the pillars and headliner were all recovered with OE replica material.

[George Hill]

I've never spent much time "advertising" for the shop and have let word of mouth (and these forum posts) do the talking, but we had been getting people wanting some stickers or t-shirts for the shop. We had a client whose wife is a graphic designer and we commissioned her to setup us up with a logo and this is what she came up with and we are beyond thrilled with it.




That led to a shirt and really happy with how they turned out, although I think we've limited our target market with the back, lol.




After that we had Daniel's famous #M3Baru: https://youtu.be/RLaw7pb7yDk




If you don't know the car its an S54 swapped touring that has retained the AWD driveline. He was on a cross country trip from Washington (to I believe Houston, Tx) and back. We have been online friends for awhile now and he had planned to swing by and show me the car anyways but ended up needing a couple items checked out.

He told me to take it out and drive it hard and normally I would say thanks and not do it, lol, but its so snappy he insisted. With the 3.91 awd diffs and the big tires it was so much fun to drive. I really want to build one of these now!

The main issue was the car had an intermittent hard start which was caused by a loose battery cable at the underhood jump point. This caused thermal damage to the jump point terminal block and connected battery tender wiring. We swapped the terminal block with a used one we had on hand, then repaired and re-routed the battery tender wiring to the drug bin side of the block.

A severe vibration on braking had developed and so a front brake pad and rotor replacement was due along with an oil change. The hatch glass would not open and it was discovered the General Module (GM or Body Control Module) was coded for a coupe. A quick coding session got the GM setup for the touring and got the missing functions now working.








We had Alonzo's E65 back in the shop for a couple items but the big change was the switch from Beyern 18" wheels to factory 20s in black. I know its an N62 E65 and most people hate them, but boy do I like this car blacked out like this.






Started prepping and S54 for a swap. The car had 150k miles on it, running and driving, no noises, passed vanos test, everything looked good. Went to put bearings in it and...






Luckily no spin or any damage, but still, we caught it just in the knick of time. New bearings went in and then went to the Vanos and...




Lol, this engine was just so close to being a paperweight. I ended up calling it a night after this and as I slept on it I thought more about it. And while I don't think there was anything "bad" about the bottom end I decided that I would trade the engine with another I had saved as a personal back-up engine. I figured the engines were basically the same starting point but I wanted to pull the bottom end apart on this one and physically measure the rod big end and that was a bit out of the scope for the client. With the vanos all pulled apart and the engine on a stand its not *that* much more work to pull the head and knock the rods out of it to verify sizing. Besides that, this client is a really good guy and he's had some bad luck with this new racecar of his and I wanted to ensure his bad luck didn't continue and I was more optimistic about the replacement engine than the current.


Some of you may know that we are working on making/supplying a carbon fiber roof skin replacement for the E46 tourings. I had a chance to fly out to the manufacturer and inspect a couple of the first versions and see their setup.












And then by happenstance an interested party who had been very vocal about wanting one just happened to be about 45 min from the manufacturer. His car was in pieces and it worked out that we were able to "test" fit one on his car and see how it was working out.






Originally we had planned to make it a full replacement skin replica but after staring at it on his car we decided to trim it and make it just the top skin and not incorporate the complete rear section (which was definitely the right choice). It was a fabulous trip but quite the whirlwind, on the plane in Austin at 6am, flying half way across the country, fitting, and back landing in Austin at 1am.


After that we had an E63 M6 in for a 6MT conversion. This was a first for us and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The clients were great to deal with and we all had the same vision for how it should turn out so I was very thankful that they were fully committed to let us make it as perfect as possible.






As with all of our swaps we try to emulate a factory car as close as possible so this meant all the "correct" M6 6MT parts were sourced including the switches and electronics.




For the transmission the 6MT from the S65 is commonly used as finding a S85 6MT is extremely hard. And honestly we considered buying a new unit from BMW, at a price of nearly $8k alone it was going to be a commitment, but we ended up finding a low(er) mileage S65 unit and went with that. The main difference in the S65 vs S85 6MTs are that the S65s incorporate an oil cooler where the S85s don't use one. There are lots of ways to deal with this, but what we did was design our own block off plates for the oil ports and the oil pump. These plates use all the factory o-rings and seals and are completely transferable in the instance the trans needed to be replaced.






We used a new BMW flywheel and and aftermarket clutch (spec'd for a S85), assembled the transmission and got it all in the car with a custom spec driveshaft.






The wiring is a little daunting but not TOO terrible once it got started. We used a factory 6MT transmission sub harness and modified the SMG trans to e-box harness to emulate the 6MT version (not available). From there wired the harness to the e-box into it's corresponding components and interior items.












The interior was wrapped up and looks like it should have come from BMW.




I'll go on record as to saying I don't hate the SMG and I was mildly concerned I wouldn't like the swap (based off of driving 6MT M5s years ago) but I'll definitely say I LOVE driving this car now. Everything works like it's supposed to and it's just a blast.

[George Hill]

Correct, however, we can be assured rod bearings would be toast if the car was abused.

Always wise to change them when the history is not known of course.

I agree, but if they were replaced at 135k then this tells us nothing, that's all I'm saying.

Love this thread.

Thanks!

[jet_dogg]

You may be right, but the current owner bought around 140k iirc and we have no prior history. So without the earlier maintenance info we can make no assumptions on whether your theory is right or wrong.

Correct, however, we can be assured rod bearings would be toast if the car was abused.

Always wise to change them when the history is not known of course. Love this thread.

[George Hill]

Those are some good looking bearings, reinforces my theory that frequent rod bearing replacement is unnecessary if the car is driven properly.

You may be right, but the current owner bought around 140k iirc and we have no prior history. So without the earlier maintenance info we can make no assumptions on whether your theory is right or wrong.

[jet_dogg]

Those are some good looking bearings, reinforces my theory that frequent rod bearing replacement is unnecessary if the car is driven properly.